American Harry Lyon (1885?–1963?), was the navigator for the first flight across the Pacific in 1928 with Charles Kingsford Smith (as pilot), Charles Ulm (as co-pilot) and fellow-American James Warner as the (radio operator) in the Southern Cross.Old Newspaper Articles - various Australian newspaper clippings, with reports and photos about the Pacific Ocean crossing in 1928
According to the Spokane Daily Chronicle, he was a son of US Navy Rear Admiral Henry W. Lyon and served as a lieutenant commander on the transport and as first lieutenant aboard the cruiser during World War I. However, an article of uncertain reliability but much greater detail states that though he was accepted into the United States Naval Academy in 1905, he flunked out and worked in the Merchant Marine, eventually rising to captain of the S.S. Likliki.
After the pioneering flight, he took up rum running in San Francisco, California.
References
External links 1928 photograph of Warner and Lyon, National Library of Australia Southern Cross crew welcomed--outtakes, University of South Carolina Moving Image Research Collections Harry Lyon Map Collection, National Library of Australia